Varna (Hinduism)

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Varna is the term for the four broad ranks into which traditional Hindu society is divided. The four varnas are:

  • the Brahmins: priests and scholars.
  • the Kshatriya: kings, governors, warriors and soldiers.
  • the Vaishyas: cattle herders, agriculturists, artisans[1] and merchants.[2]
  • the Shudras: labourers and service providers.

This quadruple division is the ancient division of society into "principal castes"; it is not to be confused with the much finer caste system in India based on occupation as it emerged in the medieval period.[3]

Though only laid out in detail in post-Vedic Brahmanism (in the Manusmṛti, the oldest of the Dharmashastras, compiled during the time of the Kushan Empire), the varna division is alluded to in the late Rigvedic Purusha Sukta, and it has been theorised to reflect a much more ancient tripartite society, ultimately cognate with the western "estates of the realm" (viz. division into a priestly class, a warrior class, and a class of commoners or free farmers, apart from a population of unfree serfs excluded from society proper).

Etymology and origins

Further information: varṇa (disambiguation) and trifunctional hypothesis

Varna is a Sanskrit term varṇa (वर्ण). It is derived from the root vṛ, meaning "to cover, to envelop" (compare vṛtra).

In the Rigveda, the term can mean "class of men, tribe, order, profession", especially expressing the contrast between the āryas and dāsas.[4]

The earliest application to the formal division into four social classes (without using the term varna) appears in the late Rigvedic Purusha Sukta (RV 10.90.11–12), which has the Brahman, Rajanya (instead of Kshatriya), Vaishya and Shudra classes emerging from the mouth, arms, thighs and feet of the primordial giant, Purusha, respectively:

11. When they divided Purusa how many portions did they make?
What do they call his mouth, his arms? What do they call his thighs and feet?
12. The Brahman was his mouth, of both his arms was the Rajanya made.
His thighs became the Vaisya, from his feet the Sudra was produced. (trans. Ralph T.H. Griffith)

In the post-Vedic period, the division is described explicitly and in great detail in the Dharmashastra literature, later also in the Puranas and other texts. The Manusmriti is the oldest of the Dharmashastra texts, reflecting the laws and society of Gupta period India.[citation needed]

Rigvedic evidence of such a quadruple division of society has been compared to similar systems, especially with a view to reconstructing hypothetical Proto-Indo-European society. Such comparison is at the basis of the trifunctional hypothesis presented by Georges Dumézil. Dumézil postulates a basic division of society into a priesthood (Brahmins), warrior class or nobility (Kshatriyas) and commoners (Vaishyas), augmented by a class of unfree serfs (Shudras).[citation needed]

Hindu tradition

See also: Caste system in India and History of the Indian caste system

The concept of dharma deals mainly with the duties of the different varṇas and ashramas (life cycles).

The first three[5] varnas are seen as "twice born" and they are allowed to study the Vedas.

The occupations of the Vaishya are those connected with trade, the cultivation of the land and the breeding of cattle; while those of a Kshatriya consist in ruling and protecting the people, administering justice and expounding all dharma. Both share with the Brahmin the privilege of reading the Vedas. To the Brahmin belongs the right of teaching and expounding the sacred texts and other knowledge. Shudras provided services and labour to all the society.[citation needed]

Manusmriti assigns cattle rearing as Vaishya occupation, however there are sources in available literature that Kshatriyas also owned and reared the cattle and cattle-wealth was mainstay of their households. The emperors of Kosala and the prince of Kasi are some of many examples.[2]

Separate and shunned by higher levels of ritual society, including the Shudras, were the "untouchables", now known as Dalits, who had to deal with the disposal of dead bodies and similar menial taks and are described as dirty and polluted. There was a belief that one's Karma in the past, resulted in one's condition in this birth.[citation needed]

The Tantric movement that developed as a tradition distinct from orthodox Hinduism between the 8th and 11th centuries CE[6] also relaxed many societal strictures regarding class and community distinction. However it would be an over generalization to say that the Tantrics did away with all social restrictions, as N. N. Bhattacharyya explains:

For example, Tantra according to its very nature has nothing to do with the [class] system but in the later Tantras [class] elements are pronounced. This is because although many of our known Tantric teachers were non-Brāhmaṇas, rather belonging to the lower ranks of society, almost all of the known authors of the Tantric treatises were Brāhmaṇas."[7]

Varna and jāti

Main article: Jāti

The terms varna (theoretical classification based on occupation) and jāti (caste) are two distinct concepts: while varna is the idealised four-part division envisaged by the above described Twice-Borns, jāti (community) refers to the thousands of actual endogamous groups prevalent across the subcontinent. A jati may be divided into exogamous groups based on same gotras. The classical authors scarcely speak of anything other than the varnas; even Indologists sometimes confuse the two.[8]

In India and Nepal the sub-communities within a varna are called "jaat" or "jati". Traditionally, individuals marry only within their jati. People are born into a jati and normally it cannot be changed.[citation needed]

Modern India

Main article: Caste politics in India

Critics point that the effect of communities (jatis) inheriting varna was to bind certain communities to sources of influence, power and economy while locking out others and thus create more affluence for jatis in higher classes and severe poverty for jatis in lower classes and the outcaste Dalit. In the last 150 years Indian movements arose to throw off the economic and political yoke of an inherited class system that emerged over time, and replace it with what they believed to be true Varnashrama dharma as described in the Vedas.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Walter Hazen, (2003) Inside Hinduisum (Milliken Publishing company, St.Louis, Missouri, U.S.A) p.4
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Arun Kumar (2002). Encyclopaedia of Teaching of Agriculture. Anmol Publications PVT. LTD. pp. 411–. ISBN 978-81-261-1316-3. Retrieved 4 July 2011. 
  3. ↑ Mark Juergensmeyer, (2006) The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions (Oxford Handbooks in Religion and Theology), p. 54
  4. ↑ Monier-Williams, Sanskrit Dictionary (1899). Monier-Williams surmises that the "caste" meaning reflects the "contrast of colour between the dark aboriginal tribes and their fair conquerors".
  5. ↑ Department of Global and International Studies University of California Mark Juergensmeyer Professor of Sociology and Director, Santa Barbara (12 October 2006). The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions. Oxford University Press, USA. pp. 27–. ISBN 978-0-19-972761-2. Retrieved 14 July 2013. 
  6. ↑ Flood, Gavin, "The Śaiva Traditions" in: Flood (2005; paperback edition of Flood 2003) p.208
  7. ↑ N. N. Bhattacharyya. History of the Tantric Religion, p. 44-5.
  8. ↑ Dumont, Louis (1980), Homo hierarchicus: the caste system and its implications, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 66–67, ISBN 0-226-16963-4 

Further reading

  • Ambedkar, B.R. (1946) Who were the Shudras?
  • Alain Danielou (1976). Les Quatre Sens de la Vie, Paris
  • Sri Aurobindo (1970), The Human Cycle, The Ideal of Human Unity, War and Self-Determination, (Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust), ISBN 81-7058-281-4 (hardcover), ISBN 81-7058-014-5 (paperback)
  • Ravi Batra, The Downfall of Communism and Communism: a New Study of History, Macmillan, New York, NY, USA, 1978
  • Sohail Inayatullah, Understanding P. R. Sarkar: The Indian Episteme, Macrohistory and Transformative Knowledge, Brill Academic Publishers, 2002, ISBN 90-04-12842-5.
  • Elst, Koenraad Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate. 1999. ISBN 81-86471-77-4
  • Kane, Pandurang Vaman: History of Dharmasastra: (ancient and mediaeval, religious and civil law)—Poona : Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1962–1975
  • "Brahmanotpatti-martanda" Harikrishna Shastri, (Sanskrit), 1871
  • Jati Bhaskar, Jwalaprasd Mishra, (Hindi), published by Khemaraj Shrikrishnadas,1914.
  • G. S. Ghurye (1961). Caste, Class and Occupation. Popular Book Depot, Bombay.
  • G. S. Ghurye (1969). Caste and Race in India, Popular Prakashan, Mumbai 1969 (1932)
  • Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar (1967) Human Society-2, Ananda Marga Publications, Anandanagar, P.O. Baglata,Dist. Purulia, West Bengal, India.
  • Ghanshyam Shah, Caste and Democratic Politics in India, 2004
  • Welzer, Albrecht. 1994. "Credo, Quia Occidentale: A Note on Sanskrit varna and its Misinterpretation in Literature on Mamamsa and Vyakarana". In: Studies in Mamamsa: Dr Mandan Mishra Felicitation Volume edited by R.C. Dwivedi. Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass.
  • Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age, by Susan Bayly and Gordon Johnson.
  • Lal, Vinay (2005), Introducing Hinduism, New York: Totem Books, pp. 132–33, ISBN 978-1-84046-626-3

External links

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